NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — After a seven-year absence, Hydrox sandwich cookies are being relaunched by Leaf Brands LLC.

Leaf Brands kicked off the relaunch on Friday at its production facility in Vernon, Calif. The company noted that last year it acquired the Hydrox brand and set out to rebuild it in its original formula, using real sugar and high-quality cocoa. 

According to Leaf Brands, Hydrox was the original sandwich cookie, invented in 1908, and four years later Nabisco created the Oreo cookie, which eventually overtook Hydrox as the top-selling cookie. Ellia Kassoff, chief executive officer of Leaf Brands, believes the relaunch of Hydrox will bring consumers back to the brand and the product they once embraced.

Leaf Brands also referred to recent news headlines about presidential candidate Donald Trump announcing that he will boycott Oreo, which reportedly is moving much of its domestic production to Mexico. Upon hearing Trump’s boycott speech, Kassoff extended an invitation to Trump to visit the Hydrox plant outside Los Angeles.

“You will notice the ‘other guys’ use high-fructose corn syrup and other low-quality ingredients because they’re all about increasing margins, even if that means moving to Mexico. We think it’s more important to sell an American-made product that only uses the best ingredients,” Kassoff stated. “That’s why we rolled back the formula to a recipe which doesn’t include any hydrogenated oils or HFCS, which were added to the [Hyrdox] cookie when Kellogg’s and Keebler owned it. The project took a while, but after a year of product development we are extremely excited to start production.”

Leaf Brands said Amazon has partnered with the company for the initial rollout of Hydrox. “There are many consumers waiting for the cookies as soon as they come off the line, and what better company to fulfill the initial influx of orders than Amazon,” explained Kassoff.

Many national and local supermarket and chain retailers also are looking to bring Hydrox back into their stores, Leaf Brands added.

“We knew this would happen, and we’re ready for it,” stated Cody Sheean, vice president of marketing and international sales for Leaf Brands. “The hardest part of bringing back such a well-known brand is managing the initial run on product and keeping up with production. We call it, ‘The Twinkie Effect,’ relating to the huge rush of consumers buying Twinkies after they were brought back a few years ago.”

The original Leaf Brands began in the 1920s, and the company was once North America’s fourth-largest candy producer, bringing classic products such as Whoppers and Jolly Rancher to the marketplace. Family members restarted Leaf Brands after the U.S. division was sold to Hershey Co. in 1996. Products include Astro Pops, Farts Candy, tart n’ tinys and David’s Signature Beyond Gourmet.